Man thrown from plane over Tennessee
Man thrown from plane: A flight instructor says his student was thrown from an experimental aircraft at 2,500 feet above the ground. The canopy on the plane came off and he fell out. His body was found Saturday.
Zodiac model 601. A similar model two-seater aircraft was involved in an incident where the student fell from the aircraft.
Photo courtesy Zenith Air
Chattanooga, Tenn.
UPDATED: 2 p.m. Saturday.
Authorities in Tennessee have found the body of a man who was thrown from an experimental aircraft while an instructor was teaching him to fly.
Bradley County Interim Fire Chief Troy Spence says search crews located the deceased student pilot at about 11:45 a.m. Saturday. He declined to release the man's name.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported that police in Collegedale and the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office on Friday were searching the ground for the man.
Collegedale Municipal Airport employee Lowell Sterchi said the man was being trained by an instructor in his Zodiac 601 aircraft at about 2,500 feet when the canopy came off.
The man's seat belt was not fastened and he was thrown out from the plane over the East Brainerd and Apison areas of the county.
Sterchi said the instructor, who Sterchi would not identify, landed the plane and was not physically hurt. Sterchi said the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have been notified.
The Zodiac is a side-by-side two-seat kit metal aircraft manufactured by Zenair of Midland, Ontario and Zenith Aircraft of Mexico, Missouri.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.